1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved clothes hanger, more particularly to a clothes hanger that is purposefully frangible as a preventative measure against being restructured into a weapon that can cause bodily harm.
2. Description of the Prior Art
On Aug. 25, 1998 Schopfer was issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,934 for a garment carrier. The patent teaches that a blank for forming a garment carrier may be used once, or a few times, for transport of one or a few garments on hanger hooks, and then discarded. Like the novel invention presented, the carrier has a body of thin material, e.g. corrugated cardboard forming an orifice for receiving the free end of one or a few hangers.
On Feb. 8, 2000 Ho was granted U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,934 for an improved clothes hanger that includes metal wires and plastic bristles. The metal wires are intertwined and spiraled into the shape of a clothes hanger having two shoulder portions. The bristles are twined with the metal wires such that they are located at and project elastically from the shoulder portions of the clothes hanger. When a piece of clothing is hung on the clothes hanger, the bristles support and match the curvature of the shoulders of the clothing, thus preventing wrinkling of the shoulders of the clothing.
On Mar. 28, 2000 Balser was granted U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,985 for a multiple purpose coat hanger member having additional appendages extending laterally outwardly from the upper neck portion of the hanger from which hanger portions additional articles of clothing can be attached, such lateral extensions comprising a plurality of linear extending members affixed to the neck portion of the hanger, such lateral extension members having attachment means for hanging clothing articles on the extreme end thereof.
On Dec. 11, 2001 U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,186 was granted to Wing for a formable garment hanger wherein a foam tube is formed over a malleable wire. Since the malleable wire can be extracted and weaponized by being formed into a weapon, the novel invention is clearly distinguishable since it is made entirely of cardboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,603 was issued to Gish on Nov. 19, 2002 for a clothes hanger that has a hook for engaging a bar to support the change, a first and second side bar extending at substantially opposite angles from the hook, a horizontal bar extending between the side bars at ends of the side bars away from the hook, and a pliable compression strip having a particular length and opposite ends, one end engaging one of the side bars and the other end engaging the other of the side bars at engagement points on the side bars between the hook and the horizontal bar. The length of the pliable strip is greater than a straight line distance between the engagement points, such that the pliable strip, curving downward, urges against a portion of the horizontal bar, in a manner to secure an article of clothing against the horizontal bar.
On Jan. 21, 2003 U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,388 was granted to Louw for a hanger with a locking mechanism to secure gripping members that can be disengaged with a user operated lever. The gripping members engage and securely retain an item such as an article of clothing when the locking mechanism is engaged. A tab located on the gripping members acts as a lever and disengages the locking mechanism with decreased effort by an individual user. With this structure, the item can be easily secured to the hanger by engaging the locking mechanism, and freed by easily disengaging the locking mechanism by operation of the tab.
Clothes hangers have long been used in restricted facilities such as prisons, military installations, jails, and the like for storing clothing of guards, military personnel, and police on and off-duty. A major problem today is that the customary hard plastic hanger, wire hangers, wooden hangers, and combination metal and plastic hangers are a major raw material in prisons and restricted spaces often used to create weapons capable of stabbing or cutting and thereby causing serious bodily harm. There exists a long felt need in the prison industry for a clothes hanger that is not weaponizable and therefore weapon-proof.